Sports

PHOENIX -- According to Sean Miller, there's only one Bob Huggins, even though people were trying to compare the two college basketball coaches on the eve of their teams' NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 clash tonight at US Airways Center.

One (West Virginia's Huggins) is 54 years old and has amassed 616 career victories in 26 seasons with Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and West Virginia, an average of 23.7. The other (Xavier's Miller) is 39 and has yet to reach 100 wins, getting 92 in four seasons -- all with Xavier -- for an average of 23.0.

At that rate, Miller, a Beaver County native and former Pitt standout guard, would need an extra year of coaching to surpass Huggins' current mark -- but he would be eight years older than Huggins is now.

"I find it hard to make an analogy" said Bill Raftery, a former Seton Hall coach who has made a name over the same 26 years as Huggins' coaching career as one of the most enthusiastic college basketball TV commentators. "I really think they both want their kids to play hard, they demand a lot from them, they expect a lot. But, obviously, they have different personalities."

Those contrasting styles will be on display when seventh-seeded West Virginia (26-10) challenges third-seeded and 12th-ranked Xavier (29-6) in the West Region semifinals.

"He has a different style," Miller said Wednesday. "The one thing that you learn from Bob Huggins and you learn from all great coaches, as you get older as a coach, you have to be who you are. You can steal different things from other coaches, but at the end of the day, when a coach tries to be something he's not or plays a style that he deep-down doesn't believe in, it is not going to work."

Miller, like Huggins the son of a very successful high school basketball coach, acknowledged some similarities between the two, despite their varying demeanors, which reveal Huggins' boisterous nature and Miller's quiet approach.

"I would say the one common thread that I have with him, because of his love for the game growing up in a basketball family like he did, I'm equal to him in that," Miller said. "I grew up in a basketball family just like him, and the love of the game that I have would be similar.

"With that, I think you then go on a quest to being true to who you are, what you believe in, what you really know. If there is a similarity, it would be more in our background as opposed to anything else."

Xavier guard Stanley Burrell, the defensive player of the year in the Atlantic 10 Conference, credited Miller with building maybe the Musketeers' best team in years, even though the program has been flourishing for quite some time and is considered to be the A-10's premiere team more times than not.

"Coach's influence on us has been tremendous," Burrell said. "Everything that he says, I think everybody, from the first guy to the last guy, believes in. He has never lied to us. He is always honest about what he's saying. When he teaches something, everybody really listens. He has been practicing and teaching the defensive philosophy since Day One.

"We weren't as good the first year he was here because we were getting used to it. He has stayed consistent and never changed the strategies. It is great he has stayed consistent throughout the tough times, and it is paying off for us."

Duquesne coach Ron Everhart, whose Dukes suffered their worst losses of the season to West Virginia and Xavier, marveled at the similar results that have led to tonight's matchup.

"I would legitimately think both of these teams could win a national championship," Everhart said. "That's the intriguing thing about this: Both of these coaches have transformed their players into men."

The winner of the West Virginia-Xavier game will advance to meet the winner of the other regional semifinal game between top-seeded No. 3 UCLA (33-3) and Western Kentucky (29-6) in the Elite Eight on Saturday.

Huggins, a Morgantown, W.Va., native and a former West Virginia player, said he has no special feelings about facing Miller and Xavier, even though he did so on a number of occasions during his long tenure at crosstown rival Cincinnati. The games were so heated that in recent years, they were penciled in as national TV broadcasts.

"It is a story. I understand that," Huggins said. "(But), no, what makes a difference is whether it is Xavier or UCLA or Western Kentucky. I mean, it is a game that's a very, very important game for both teams because the one that loses is done and the one that wins gets to advance. And it is really not any more than that."

Huggins made a point to impress his listeners on one other matter.

"I like Sean," he said. "I have known Sean pretty much his whole life. I know his father, (former Blackhawk High School coach) John, very, very well. John and my dad have been friends and coaching colleages for 30, 35 years. It is not any more than that."

As a high school senior, Huggins led Gnadenhutten (Ohio) Indian Valley South High School, coached by his father, Charles, to a 26-0 record.

In his first season coaching at West Virginia, following a year at Kansas State, Huggins took a team whose players were as far from his personality as Miller is -- and has it still playing.

"I watched Coach Huggins when he was at Cincinnati, and I knew he was an intense coach," said 7-foot West Virginia center Jamie Smalligan, one of former Mountaineers coach John Beilein's recruits. "His teams were tough, rebounded, were strong on defense and out-toughed teams to win. He might be in your face in practice, but he's a really good coach and a really good guy. I'm not sure I was totally expecting that."

Raftery, who likened his sideline temperament more to Huggins' than Miller's, laughed at the thought of Huggins' frequent game-day antics, which include constant clashes with officials.

"Bobby and Sean have such different personalities," Raftery said, "and yet, they're both pleasant to be around. There's a lot of give-and-take. They just enjoy what they are doing."

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Getting reacquainted

Coaches Bob Huggins of West Virginia and Sean Miller of Xavier have faced each other only two times, with each coach winning once. Huggins, in his first season at WVU, is the former longtime coach of Cincinnati, the crosstown rival of Xavier, where Miller is in his fourth season. One of the meetings occurred when Huggins was coaching at Kansas State. Here is a look at the outcome of games involving the two men as head coaches:

Feb. 10, 2005
Cincinnati 65, Xavier 54

Dec. 29, 2006
Xavier 76, Kansas State 66

Note: Huggins' Cincinnati teams faced Miller at Xavier three times while Miller was serving as associate head coach of the Musketeers, who won two of the three meetings from 2001-02 to 2003-04.

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